I'm not sure if this should be posted in the Trades or Marketplace section of the site so I thought maybe it could even be acceptable for General and I guess if it isn't, it can always be moved or re-posted on the appropriate board if this isn't.

Even if I don't get anything back from my situation explained below it is nevertheless a good thing to be aware of at least one thing. I think Canada Post is onto us.

Canadians such as myself like to get minis at relatively cheaper prices when we are given the chance because prices can be very wonky, if you will, when American-based products are being purchased due to all the stuff we already have a general concept of understanding about. In fact, who doesn't like buying things cheaper? Anyhoooooo, the reality of the situation is that ironincally, American sellers are usually one of the best places to start (although there are obviously reliable Canadian sellers out there), despite the difference in our dollar value. But recently I found out that buying things in this manner can't always be cheaper alternatives. On my last transaction, getting minis through international means turned out fairly more expensive than I thought, although it wasn't like it was the biggest rip-off and waste of money I have ever encountered. Just very annoying and I wish I knew how to make a reasonable argument so as to at least get back a little bit of the money I would not have otherwise spent.

I very recently came out of a transaction and although the normal and quite common but admittedly dishonest practice of listing the value of the package at $10 so to avoid fees later on was indeed applied to my incoming package, Customs nevertheless opened it (for whatever reasons they might have had for doing so) which puzzled me because this has never happened before. Never. So obviously it was a big surprise. It wasn't even explained why it was opened in the first place.

Anywhoo, they basically looked inside, looked at the invoice (because there was an obvious re-folding of it extremely close to the original crease lines) and deemed the package worth about $6 more than what the invoice indicated, for a subtotal of $124, making me in the end pay a bunch of money in taxes and I say SUBtotal because it did not stop there. Customs also added more taxes because I could have bought the figures in Canada (but as we all know, this would likely get VERY expensive as I was buying a fair amount of older figures and whatnot, "whatnot" meaning there are too many factors to list in addition to what has been said already). All together I had to shell out about $22 in order for the post office to hand it over. I don't know about you but that seems a tad much when it is just taxes by themselves, not the actual face price. I almost didn't pay up because this seemed insane but I figured that I guess that is life and I might find a way to get a refund of at least some of it later if I pulled a horseshoe out of my rear by coming about some advice on how to proceed.

So is there anyone who could share some information on how this could be handled? Obviously it is not the end of the world or anything of the like. I can live with it but as anyone who is familiar with the common courtesy of listing low prices so that taxes can be avoided in the first place can imagine, it isn't exactly something that goes by very easily if there is now the known risk of possible repeat perfomaces and unnecessary amounts of money, eventually leading up to potentially hundreds of dollars may be needed when otherwise it wouldn't have been necessary. Sure, what was going on with many international transactions wasn't honest but if there is a way to justify it without going into extreme technicalites but still using economical know-how and the like, it would be extremely appreciated on how these sorts of situations could be avoided later on and resolve current disputes. I ask for this help because I apparently can phone a number which would connect me to the proper person to talk to and essentially argue for a partial refund (hopefully at the very least) or (even more hopefully) a full refund.

P.S. Sorry for the extreme elaboration but I felt perhaps it might have been necessary so I did not confuse myself by using a shorter version which there would have been objectionable statements that could have been inferred a number of ways and/or anything equivalent happening.